At first blush, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action sounds suspiciously like Glaswegian quartet Franz Ferdinand backpedaling to peppier times after the hesitant reception accorded 2009’s moody, mysterious Tonight: Franz Ferdinand.

Such behaviour is a bit worrisome coming from a band that’s always seemed far too self-assured to fret over what the tastemakers might think, but at the end of the day Right Thoughts is simply so much fun that one can’t be bothered to dwell on matters of artistic motivation. This is a lean, locked-on piece of pop perfection from a band that, through endlessly wry frontman Alex Kapranos, has the cheek to declare, “You know I hate pop music” on closing track “Goodbye Lovers and Friends” after it’s just finished beating you senseless with 35 minutes worth of uncanny hooks.

As the most immediate and effervescent of Franz Ferdinand’s four studio albums — the giddy Talking Heads worship of “Right Action” and the Buzzcock-ian sugar high of “Bullet” are easily on a plane with such past glories as “Take Me Out” and “Do You Want To” — Right Thoughts maybe runs the risk of burning out its welcome through addictive repeat play early on. I’m inclined to think it’s got legs, though; sonically and structurally speaking, Right Thoughts has got a helluva lot more depth and strangeness going for it than it lets on, with some of its more left-field moves no doubt traceable to the involvement of clever folks like Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor, dance producer Todd Terje and Bjorn Yttling (of Peter, Bjorn & John fame) behind the boards.

It’s a record particularly good at throwing you a middle-eight curveball, if nothing else. Franz Ferdinand remains a meta-rock trainspotter’s dream, too, gleefully bending winking references to the disparate likes of The Beatles (“Fresh Strawberries”), Joy Division (“Treason! Animals.”) and David Bowie (“Evil Eye”) into songs that knowingly skirt the edges of the familiar without resorting to pastiche. There’s still time to make this your “summer album.”

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